Methodist Church

HOVE

TQ20NE PORTLAND ROAD 579-1/3/98 (North side) Methodist Church with walls piers, stairway, lamps and gates

II

Methodist church. 1895. Architect John Wills. Red brick, stone dressings, coped verges, concrete tile roof, bell turret to roof ridge. Plan: rectangular 5-bay block with internal galleries on three sides accessible via stair turrets on (liturgical) south-west and north-west corners, internal porch, double entrance approached by double stair, basement below. Buttressed west gable end flanked by buttressed tourelles, large rose window resting on 6 lancets set on moulded string, gabled double porch, 2 double doors with very ornate hinges, 2-light windows to gable stair turrets; north and south fronts symmetrical with 3 tiers of 2-light windows between full-height buttresses. Stairway on west front: double stair with gatepiers, gates and walls returned to south-west and north-west corners of church. Double stair with moulded ashlar coping and recessed panels in retaining wall fronting street; simple cast-iron handrail, cast-iron gates between square piers with moulded pyramid ashlar caps embellished with trefoil decoration, 2 with ornate electric lamp standards. Interior: wooden gallery carried on cast-iron columns with foliate capitals, wooden balcony. Ceiled and boarded hammerbeam roof. Good collection of original fittings including reader's desk and organ bay at east end. Rather opulent interior for a Methodist church, reflecting the affluence and vitality of the congregation at the turn of the century.

Listing NGR: TQ2832205280